Soulfly Frontman Discusses D-Low Memorial Show and Possibility of a Sepultura Reunion

As Soulfly prepare to play the 14th Annual D-Low Memorial Show on Saturday, August 28th in Arizona, frontman Max Cavalera sits down with Phoenix-area news blog Up On the Sun to discuss the history of the memorial show, his songwriting process and the likelihood of Sepultura's classic line-up ever reuniting.

Writes the blog, "The Cavalera family was dealt a crushing blow in 1996 when Max's stepson, Dana "D-Low" Wells, was killed in a fatal car accident near Cactus Road and 24th Street in north Phoenix. Cavalera and his wife, Gloria, have long contended that Wells was intentionally run off the road, but no criminal charges were ever filed.

"A longtime Valley resident, Cavalera has held a D-Low memorial show in the Valley every year since the accident. The annual show has a history of surprise guest appearances, including the long-awaited reunion of Iggor and Max at the 2006 show. The 14th annual D-Low memorial show is set to take place this weekend, and, like previous shows, friends and family figure prominently into the bill. Cavalera's other stepson, Richie Cavalera, fronts opening act Incite, and Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist Greg Puciato is also scheduled to appear."

Read an excerpt of the Q&A with Max below, go here for the full feature, and to find out more about the D-Low Memorial Show, goright here.

Up on the Sun: The D-Low memorial show has a history of surprise guest appearances. Your publicist already let the cat out of the bag on Greg Puciato. Do you have any other surprises up your sleeve?

Cavalera: Well, I think Greg is like the main one. We did a song with him on the last record and we were never able to play the song with him live yet, 'cause we haven't crossed paths yet. We called him and we told them about the Dana show, and he was available. He said "I'll be there," so that's awesome. We're really looking forward to that. Apart from that, probably just the family being involved in the show, like my kids playing drums. Each one of them plays drums in a different song, so Zyon and Igor, they're probably going to play drums in two different songs, and Richie, who is opening the show with his band Incite, is probably gonna sing some for his brother, either "Bleed" or one of the songs that was done for Dana, "Tree of Pain" or something like that. So it should be a really cool show, a lot of cool things going on, like all Dana shows have had some really cool stuff on them.

I went back and re-read the New Times cover story from 1999 about the circumstances surrounding Dana's death. Have your and Gloria's opinions about the incident changed in the past 11 years? Do you still believe it was a murder?

Yeah, yeah, I have no doubt about it. She redid the case so many times in her head and talked to so many people that we know for sure that that was a murder. It's just kind of one of those things. I told her the way I feel about it. I think, to me, the people that did this are gonna have to deal with God one day. They've got to have this heavy conscience on themselves anyway, you know, even without getting caught. They still have that, waking up every day and knowing that they did that to somebody. That's probably the punishment right there. But we're still hoping that something's going to come up. That's why she's still doing the case. We're still doing the benefits to keep people aware that that went on. Hopefully this thing comes to closure one day.

It seems like holding a memorial show every year would bring back lots of anger and sadness. How much longer will you keep doing these shows?

Well to me, the show is more of a positive thing. It's more to remember his memory through the music, because Dana was a very musical person who was always into music. He got me into a lot of new bands that I ended up working with later, like Korn and the Deftones, he was the first one to get me to hear these bands. To me, it's more to remember him as a person in the family who was into music, so it's a celebration of music for that reason, and that's why I like the show so much. It's so cool. At the last one, they had a huge banner at the front of the stage that the fans made for Dana with his name on it. It was hand-painted, really really cool with big letters. It was right in front of me the whole time of the show. Just showing the fans that kind of stuff, that's the spirit of the show, so I think that's great.

Next year will mark the 25th anniversary of Sepultura's debut album,Morbid Visions. You're probably sick to death of this question, but will we ever see a reunion of the original lineup?

That's something I don't know. That's a hard one. A lot of people ask me that, and sometimes I feel optimistic. I convinced Igor to do it, 'cause he didn't want to have anything to do with those guys [bassist Paulo Jr. and guitarist Andreas Kisser] ever again. I convinced him to do it for me, and he said he'd do it for me if that was the case, but the other two guys, it's kinda hard. They're still trapped in an old mindset, so it's just something that's gonna have to wait. I mean, it would have been cool to do it next year. There's a lot of cool offers for us around the world. People want to see that reunion, so I just kinda wait and see. In the meantime, I'm super busy with both bands. Soulfly is going to Israel and China and Australia next month, and I'm going to Brazil with Cavalera Conspiracy for a huge festival in Sao Paulo. So I'm pretty busy with both bands anyway, so I just kinda wait. If that happens, it's cool. If it doesn't, it's still cool. I'm busy anyway.